o 


hat  the  lister  Ms  it  each  as  to  * arming, 


AN  ADDRESS 


i     THK 


NDIAXA   STATK  ACIMCI  III  I! Al.  SlM'IKTY 


AT  ITS  ANNUAL  IA1K.  I..\1AH:TTE.  INDIANA 


FTORACE    GRE&LE1 


NEW    YOEK: 
FOWLERS    AND  WELLS,  PUB  LISH  T  -\  US  , 

<'I.INTO\  HALL.  131  NASSAT  STKKK.T. 


lii  Wathin 


PhiUdelphU:  231  Arch  St. 
|    s    -    o 


i  London:  1-Ji  SlranJ. 


ADDKESS. 


FARMERS  AND  FRIENDU  :  I  stand  before  you  at  your  Society's 
invitation,  feeling  the  full  force  of  the  criticism  which  denies  to 
one  of  my  habits  and  pursuits  capacity  to  instruct  fanners  as  to 
their  own  espe.-ial  vocation.  "Shoemaker,  stick  to  your  last!" 
is  a  sound  though  sometime^  misapplied  admonition,  and  there  is 
givut  >tivngth  in  tlu-  natural  presumption  that  every  man  can  see 
a  little  farther  on  his  own  proper  pathway  than  can  be  seen  by 
an\  one  else.  I  fully  rcali/.e  and  cheerfully  admit  that  any  one 
of  you,  who  has  devoted  tin-  la>t  twenty  or  thirty  years  to  Agri- 
culture, must  kno\\  very  much  more  concerning  it  than  I,  who- 
abandoned  it  at  fifteen  to  master  and  pursue  a  im»t  exacting 
mechanical  and  intellectual  vocation,  and  have  since  been  able  to. 
snatch  hut  here  and  there  an  hour  from  a  constant  pressure  of 
imperative  duties  and  oppressive  cares  to  revive  the  memories  of 
my  youth  among  the  busy  seed-planters,  or  within  sound  of  the 
mown- sharpening  his  scythe.  If  I  were  to  essay  a  lecture  on 
the  Complete  Husbandman — to  fix  the  proper  time  for  planting 
this  or  that  vegetable,  and  for  harvesting  thisor  that  grain,  and  so  on 
—  I  might,  of  course,  be  corrected,  on  many  points,  by  some  of  the 
youngest  of  my  auditors.  Little  as  I  know  of  farming,  I  know  too- 
much  of  it  to  attempt  any  such  teaching.  What  I  shall  endeavor,  is 
to  set  forth  some  of  the  principles  which  underlie  the  whole  fabric 
of  Productive  Art  and  Industry,  (my  calling  as  well  as  yours,) 
and  to  show  their  application,  as  correctly  as  I  may,  to  the  Farm- 
er's vocation  as  well  as  others.  I  may  err  in  this  or  that  ap- 
plication ;  but  I  shall  endeavor  to  base  my  inculcations  on  prin- 

(8) 


4  WHAT  THE   SISTER  ARTS 

ciples  so  broad  in  their  scope,  and  so  vindicated  by  centuries  of 
successful  experience  in  a  great  variety  of  pursuits,  as  to  be  justly 
entitled  to  a  place  among  the  axioms  of  Industrial  Science.  • 

I.  The  first  point,  then,  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  illustrate,  is 
that  of  Economy  of  Means — perhaps  I  should  rather  say,  Har- 
mony of  Proportion — in  the  management  of  farms  as  of  every 
•  • ;  riling  el^e./  ;  for  *y  fieri  I  say  Economy,  I  mean  something  as  re- 
•  *frTote  as  possible  fWrn  Parsimony.  Cheap  lands,  cheap  buildings, 
.*.  I  I  *£i«aj).}al9Oj-»  chgap.stfodk,  cheap  trees  or  grafts,  are  as  far  from 
.'•'.I  •  "ec<5ix>V»y  *as«anytllm^well  could  be.  By  Economy  of  Means,  I 
imply  such  a  disposition  or  distribution  of  means,  be  they  scanty 
or  abundant,  as  shall  insure  to  the  operator  the  largest  attainable 
return  for  his  labor  and  skill.  For  example  :  I  print  newspapers 
for  a  living,  and  am  obliged,  by  the  extent  of  some  of  my  edi- 
tions, to  use  presses  costing  twelve  to  sixteen  thousand  dollars 
each.  There  is  a  real  economy  in  so  doing,  because  I  could  not 
otherwise  dispatch  my  papers  to  their  subscribers  in  acceptable 
season.  But  if  any  journal  printing  one-third  or  one-tenth  so 
many  copies,  were  to  buy  and  use  such  presses,  the  policy  would 
be  wasteful  and  ruinous,  although  the  editions  would  be  thrown 
off  with  unwonted  celerity  and  efficiency.  The  interest  on  the 
capital  needlessly  locked  up  in  presses  would  probably  absorb 
all  the  profits  of  the  business,  if  not  more.  And  yet  this  is  the 
identical  blunder  that  thousands  of  farmers  persist  in,  by  holding 
•  on  to  large  farms,  which  cost  thousands  of  dollars,  and  are  very 
likely  mortgaged  or  otherwise  encumbered,  while  able  or  willing 
-only  to  apply  thereto  the  labor,  science,  skill  and  manures  which 
are  requisite  and  proper  for  farms  one-fourth  so  large.  Here  is 
enormous  waste — a  loss  of  interest  on  three-fourths  of  the  capi- 
tal invested  in  land — a  loss  which  may  possibly  be  endured  in 
farming,  but  which  could  not  fail  to  prove  ruinous  in  almost  any 
other  business. 

Every  farmer  seems  aware  of  the  reality  and  magnitude  of 
the  general  error  in  this  respect,  yet  the  great  majority  persist  in 
being  wise  for  their  neighbors  only,  and  not  for  themselves. 
.And  I  apprehend  the  error  with  many  originates  rather  in  want 


TEACH   AS   TO   FARMING.  5 

of  thought  than  lack  of  knowledge.  They  plod  on  in  the  path 
beaten  out  by  their  grandfathers,  not  reflecting  that  a  course  which 
might  have  been  advisable,  or  at  least  excusable,  when  a  farm  of 
three,  hundred  acres  was  worth  but  a  thousand  dollars  in  cash, 
has  Ijecn  rendered  utterly  indefensible  and  suicidal  by  a  gradual 
advance  in  the  value  of  that  farm  to  five  or  perhaps  ten  thousand 
dollars.  He  who  can  buy  land  at  ton  shillings  per  acre  may  afford 
to  leave  it.  unfilled  and  unfenced  for  years,  until  its  timber  or  its 
urass  shall  have  become  decidedly  valuable  ;  but  when  that  tim- 
ber shall  have  disappeared,  the  grass  become  the  watched-for 
prey  of  droves  of  other  men's  cattle,  and  the  land  worth  fifty 
dollars  per  acre,  it  is  flagrant  ainl  culpable  waste  to  blunder  on 
as  though  it  were  still  worth  but  ten  shillings. 

I  once  went  to  look  at  a  farm  <>f  fifty  acres  that  I  thought  of 
buying  for  a  summer  home,  some  tl-rty  miles  from  the  City  of 
New  York.  The  owner  had  boon  born  on  it,  as  I  believe  had  his 
father  before  him;  but  it  yielded  only  a  moagor  subsistence  for 
l:is  family,  and  he  thought  «»f  srlling  and  going  West.  I  went  over 
it  with  him  late  in  June,  passing  through  a  well-filled  barn-yard 
which  had  not  been  disturbed  that  season,  and  stepping  thence 
into  a  corn-field  of  five  acres  with  a  like  field  of  potatoes  just 
beyond  it.  "  Why,  neighbor  !"  asked  I,  in  astonishment,  "  how 
could  you  leave  all  this  manure  so  handy  to  your  plowed  land, 
and  plant  ten  acres  without  any  ?"  "  O,  I  was  sick  a  good  part 
<»f  the  Spring,  and  so  hurried  that  I  could  not  find  time  to  haul  it 
out."  "  Why,  suppose  you  had  planted  but  five  acres  in  all,  and 
emptied  your  barn-yard  on  those  five,  leaving  the  residue  un- 
touched, don't  you  think  you  would  have  harvested  a  larger  crop  f 
"  Well,  perhaps  I  should,"  was  the  poor  farmer's  response.  It 
seemed  never  before  to  have  occurred  to  him  that  he  could  let 
alone  a  part  of  his  land.  Had  he  progressed  so  far,  he  might 
have  ventured  thence  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  less  expensive 
and  more  profitable  to  raise  a  full  crop  on  five  acres  than  half  a 
crop  on  ten.  I  am  sorry  to  say  we  have  a  good  many  such  farm 
ill  left  at  the  East,  though  the  advanced  prices  of  land 
and  the  impoverished  condition  of  the  soils  they  inherited,  with 
their  slovenly  modes  of  cultivation,  have  driven  the  greater  share 


6  WHAT  THE   SISTER  ARTS 

of  them  to  the  West.  Here,  on  your  deep,  virgin  soils,  they 
renew  their  round  of  exercises  in  false  husbandry,  wasting  their 
manures  because  "  this  land  is  rich  enough,"  and  exhausting  their 
soils  by  one  grain-crop  after  another,  until  they  run  down  their 
capacity  from  thirty  bushels  per  acre  of  Wheat  to  ten  of  Corn  or 
five  of  Rye,  when  they  will  be  off  again  for  Iowa,  Missouri  or 
Oregon.  When  they  shall  have  got  so  far  West  as  to  find  land 
that  doesn't  need  nor  reward  fertilizing,  and  will  not  be  worn 
out  by  their  mode  of  farming,  I  trust  they  will  come  to  a  full 
stop  and  send  for  all  their  relations. 

Let  me  be  rightly  understood  :  I  do  not  condemn  a  man  for 
owning  more  land,  in  a  new  country,  where  land  is  cheap,  than 
he  is  now  able  or  willing  to  cultivate.  I  know  perfectly  well  that 
the  system  of  thorough  culture  that  succeeds  so  admirably  in 
Belgium  is  not  yet  adapted  to  Indiana.  Where  good  fenced  pas- 
ture may  be  bought  for  eight  or  ten  dollars  per  acre,  you  cannot 
afford  to  keep  up  your  cattle  and  cut  all  their  food,  though  that 
is  excellent  policy  in  its  place.  It  insures  the  keeping  of  a  much 
larger  stock  on  a  given  area,  beside  enriching  the  land  far  more 
rapidly.  But  it  requires  vastly  more  labor,  and  where  a  week's 
work  is  worth  an  acre  of  arable  land,  it  won't  pay.  What  I  in- 
sist on  is  simply  this  :  Land  worth  cultivating  AT  ALL  is  worth 
cultivating  WELL.  Almost  half  the  soil  in  my  section  never  ought 
to  feel  the  touch  of  plow-iron,  unless  for  the  purpose  of  striking 
fire  on  some  of  its  abundant  rocks.  Such  land  should  be  kept 
covered  from  too  particular  observation  by  growth  after  growth 
of  wood,  giving  variety  and  freshness  to  the  landscape,  and  per- 
sistence, if  not  stability, to  the  streams.  But  wherever  an  acre 
is  broken  up.  it  should  be  with  a  fixed  resolve  to  extract  a  good 
crop  from  it,  and  to  use  all  the  means  requisite  to  that  end.  A 
field  of  spindling  yellow  corn,  or  stunted,  straggling  oats,  or  blos- 
soming buckwheat  that  seems  to  have  been  compassionately  sown 
tor  the  accommodation  of  broken-winged  bumble-bees,  is  a  pal- 
pable impeachment  of  the  capacity  of  its  owner  to  manage  land 
at  all.  If  it  can  do  no  better  than  this,  he  ought  never  to  have 
broken  it  up.  If  he  will  do  such  a  stupid  thing,  he  ought  at  least 
to  keep  his  folly  out  of  sight  from  the  public  highway. 


TEACH   AS  TO  FARMING.  7 

I  presume  careful  investigation  would  discover  the  existence  of 
a  pretty  general  Law  of  Proportion  between  the  market  value  of 
a  farm  and  the  amount  of  labor  that  should  be  annually  devoted 
to  its  cultivation,  apart  from  enduring  improvements.  Let  us 
suppose  a  farm  of  one  hundred  acres  to  be  worth,  this  year,  $10 
per  acre,  or  $1,000  in  all ;  then  we  will  say  one  man's  labor,  or 
three  hundred  days'  work  per  year,  worth  $300  in  all,  might  be  as 
much  as  could  be  profitably  bestowed  on  its  mere  cultivation, 
But  roads  and  markets  improve,  until  this  land  is  worth  $30  an 
acre,  or  the  farm  $3,000 ;  and  now  much  more  of  it  may  l»i-  taken 
out  of  forest  or  pasture,  and  devoted  to  grain  and  vegetables, 
involving  an  increase  of  the  labor  expended  on  it  to  three  men's 
steady  work,  or  $900  per  year.  So,  as  the  value  increased  to 
$50,  $75,  and  at  length  $100  per  acre,  the  labor  employed 
thereon  should  be  correspondingly  increased,  whether  by  a  divi- 
sion of  the  farm  or  otherwise.  I  do  not  profess  to  indicate  the 
precise  proportion  of  present  labor  to  Valuation  of  fixed  Capital, 
but  only  that  there  is  such  a  proportion,  and  that  Economic 
Science  will  yet  ascertain  and  declare  it. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  land  should  be  cultivated  in  order  to  be 
productive.  The  young,  growing  wood  is  earning  money  for  its 
owner,  as  well  as  the  corn-field.  He  who  has  land  that  he  does 
not  need,  yet  wishes  to  keep  for  his  children,  can  hardly  serve 
them  better  than  by  inclosing  it  effectually,  planting  it  with  locust, 
hickory,  and  other  choice  timber,  ami  leaving  it  undisturbed  till 
his  sons  may  require  it.  But,  even  left  in  open,  naked  common, 
land  generally  tends  to  improve  from  the  renovating  influences' 
of  the  atmosphere  alone,  as  the  reclaimed  "old- fields"  of  the 
South  bear  witness.  It  is  only  poorly  farmed  land  that  is  a  blight 
to  its  possessor,  and  a  discredit  to  the  country.  If  all  the  labor 
now  devoted  to  farming,  throughout  the  Union,  were  wisely  con- 
centrated on  one-half  the  land,  our  annual  product  would  be  much 
larger,  our  lands  would  appear  far  more  productive  and  valuable, 
while  the  timber  that  we  are  now  wasting  and  destroying,  as 
though  Prophet  Miller's  speedy  conflagration  of  the  world  were  a 
demonstrated  verity,  would  be  gradually  re-investing  the  earth 
with  a  beauty  and  graceful  majesty  which  Cabot  or  John  Smith 


8  WHAT  THE   SISTER  ARTS 

may  have  realized,  but  of  which  our  children  seem  destined  to 
have  none  but  hearsay  evidence. 

I  hold  that  Farmers  may  also  learn  of  Mechanics  and  Artifi- 
cers to  estimate  more  highly  and  justly  than  most  of  them  now 
do  the  importance  and  necessity  of  SCIENCE,  or  a  profound  and 
accurate  knowledge  of  principles,  to  the  efficient  and  profitable 
prosecution  of  their  labors.  The  worker  in  Iron,  for  example, 
recognizes  his  need  to  know  what  is  the  nature  and  what  are  the 
properties  of  Iron ;  and  not  merely  of  Iron  in  general,  but  of  the 
various  qualities  and  kinds.  Without  this,  he  may  blow  or  strike 
fairly  in  a  blacksmith's  shop,  and  may  have  learned  to  make  a 
tolerable  horse-shoe;  but  he  has  not  risen  to  the  rank  of  an 
artisan.  Let  him  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Iron  in  the 
abstract,  and  of  the  laws  of  chemical  affinity  which  govern  its 
combinations  with  other  substances,  and  the  practical  knowledge 
he  has  gained  in  making  horse-shoes  may  be  made  available  in 
forging  anchors,  in  making  plows,  or  in  a  thousand  other  employ- 
ments which,  in  the  absence  of  Science,  he  must  have  approached 
as  a  novice,  and  learned  from  the  beginning.  Science  is  the 
bridge  across  which  our  practical  knowledge,  gained  by  experi- 
ence, passes  and  repasses,  to  aid  us  at  need  in  our  stern  battle 
with  physical  obstruction  and  stubbornness.  He  who  knows  how 
to  do  one  thing  well,  and  does  it,  is  a  good  workman,  so  far  as 
that  special  function  is  regarded ;  but  he  who  is  thoroughly 
grounded  in  the  Science  which  underlies  his  vocation  is  enabled 
to  master  a  dozen  different  arts  or  modifications  of  his  pursuit 
with  a  celerity  and  perfection  otherwise  unattainable. 

Now  the  farmer,  who  perfectly  comprehends  the  value  of 
Science  in  the  construction  of  a  bridge  or  a  chimney,  often  seems 
not  to  appreciate  so  vividly  its  importance  in  his  own  vocation. 
His  unexpressed  but  acted-on  idea  would  seem  to  be  that,  wliiU- 
other  industrial  callings  require  instruction,  method,  abstract 
knowledge,  Farming  is  a  matter  of  instinct,  or  mechanical  imita- 
tion. He  seems  to  think  a  knowledge  of  its  principles  and  laws 
"  comes  by  Nature,"  as  Dogberry  supposed  reading  and  writing 
did.  He  sends  to  college  the  son  who  is  to  be  fitted  for  a  profes- 


TEACH   AS   TO   FARMING.  9 

sion,  and  to  the  Academy  he  who  is  to  be  qualified  for  a  peda- 
gogue, but  he  does  not  consider  that  one  who  is  to  have  the  farm 
on  condition  of  taking  care  of  the  old  folks,  needs  any  other 
training  for  his  life-long  pursuit  than  that  which  is  begun  in  the 
District  School  and  finished  behind  the  plow. 

And  yet  there  is  not  a  good  reason  in  the  world  for  inducting 
a  youth,  who  is  to  become  a  master-worker  in  iron,  copper  or 
lead,  into  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  material  he  is  to  fashion 
for  a  livelihood,  which  is  not  at  least  as  good  a  reason  forinstnut- 
ing  the  young  farmer  thoroughly  and  scientifically  in  the  natuiv 
and  diverse  properties  of  soils.  These  are  more  various,  more 
complex,  less  obvious,  than  those  of  any  single  metal.  A  good  soil 
is  always  a  compound,  and  the  more  various  its  materials  the 
greater  (probably)  its  value.  A  pure  yellow  sand  or  blue  clay 
is  easily  comprehended  and  estimated ;  while  one  deep,  black 
loam  may,  because  of  certain  latent  elements,  be  worth  twin-  as 
much  as  another  euually  promising  to  the  casual  observer.  No 
man  who  has  not  scrutinized  its  husbandry  and  productions  for 
\  ear  after  year  is  qualified  to  fix  the  value  of  a  farm,  any  more 
than  to  cultivate  it.  without  the  ability  to  chemically  analyze  and 
accurately  determine  tin-  composition  of  its  soil. 

But  this,  which  I  am  commending,  is  sneered  at  as  .floo^-farming, 
and  sturdy  old  codgers  who  have  sped  the  plow  all  their  days, 
laugh  till  they  almost  fancy  themselves  witty  at  the  idea  of  a  man 
coming  out  of  a  college-chamber  or  a  chemical  laboratory  to 
teach  them  how  to  grow  corn  or  rear  cattle.  And  truly,  if  the 
teacher  were  to  commend  his  science  as  a  substitute  for  their  prac- 
tical knowledge — as  rendering  experience  unmeaning  and  personal 
observation  superfluous — there  would  be  ample  provocation  for 
sharper  shafts  of  wit  than  these  will  ever  be  able  to  speed.  But 
this  no  man  has  ever  suggested  or  commended.  The  farm- 
er best  schooled  in  the  nature  and  properties  of  soils,  the 
laws  which  govern  vegetation  and  the  elements  essential  to  form 
thrifty  plants  or  animals,  will  learn  from  experience  not  less  but 
more  than  his  uninstructed  neighbor.  His  observations  will 
have  a  wider  significance ;  and  the  fact  newly  observed  to-day 
will  be  readily  assigned  to  its  proper  place,  where  it  will 


10  WHAT  THE  SISTER  ARTS 

light  on  other  facts  observed  yesterday  or  to  be  observed  to-mor- 
row. Not  to  supersede  experience,  but  to  elevate  it  to  a  stand- 
point whence  its  range  of  vision  will  be  broader,  and  its  deduc- 
tions more  reliable,  do  we  plead  for  Science  in  Farming. 

What  is  in  effect  contended  for  by  the  advocates  of  Book-farm- 
ing is  simply  this — that  a  farmer,  like  any  artisan,  while  he  needs 
practical  experience,  may  also  profit  by  the  practical  experience  of 
others.  For  example :  A  new  plant  or  vegetable  is  introduced, 
which  our  anti-book  farmer  concludes  to  try,  though  totally  igno- 
rant of  its  nature  and  season.  Let  us  suppose  the  nearest  neigh- 
bor who  has  ever  grown  this  plant  lives  five  miles  away.  Now, 
will  not  this  new  experimenter,  if  he  have  a  decent  share  of  com- 
mon sense,  ride  over  and  ask  the  experienced  cultivator  what 
soil  is  best  adapted  to  this  plant ;  what  manures  are  best  for  it, 
what  time  it  should  be  planted  or  sowed,  how  cultivated,  &c.,  &c.  ? 
Plainly,  it  would  be  sheer  madness  for  him  to  omit  such  inqui- 
ries, and  go  on  as  if  there  had  been  no  preceding  experience,  to 
answer  all  these  questions  and  determine  all  these  points  for  him- 
self, by  hap-hazard  planting  on  every  variety  of  soil,  at  every 
possible  season,  with  any  or  every  sort  of  fertilizer  !  By  so  doing 
he  must  spend  several  hundred  dollars  to  determine  what  he 
might  readily  have  ascertained  at  the  cost  of  a  dollar.  Well ;  if 
he  could  turn  to  the  proper  page  of  an  Agricultural  Dictionary  or 
Encyclopedia,  and  there  learn  exactly  when  this  new  plant  should 
be  sown  in  this  latitude,  how  manured,  how  cultivated,  &c.,  would 
not  that  be  still  easier  and  cheaper  than  to  ride  over  to  his  dis- 
tant neighbor's  ?  Would  it  not  be  highly  probable  that  the 
directions  contained  in  the  book,  being  founded  on  a  wide  range 
of  experiments,  would  be  more  reliable  and  complete  than  his 
neighbor's  counsel,  based  on  his  narrow  personal  experience  1  A 
prudent  man  would  probably  consult  both  book  and  neighbor,  and 
then  follow  either  only  so  far  as  his  own  judgment  should  dictate ; 
but  how  can  any  one  approve  his  taking  counsel  of  one  man's 
experience,  yet  condemn  a  course  which  is,  in  fact,  but  paying 
deference  to  the  experience  of  many  thousands  ? 

II.     But  some  say,  "  Consult  and  profit  by  all  the  experience 


TEACH   AS   TO   FARMING.  11 

within  your  reach,  but  don't  talk  to  us  about  Agricultural  Science. 
Growing  good  crops  is  the  Farmer's  vocation,  and  in  this  pursuit 
experience  is  always  a  safe  guide ;  not  so  what  is  called  Science, 
which  often  misleads  and  impoverishes." 

Let  us  consider : 

Of  course,  there  is  much  Science  so-called,  which  is  false  Sci- 
ence— the  brain-spun  speculations  and  subtleties  of  idle  and  fan- 
ciful people,  anxious  to  account  for  phenomena  which  they  do  not 

really  understand.  No  one  considers  such  Science  worth  any- 
thing; and  it  is  one  of  the  chief  recommendations  of  true 
Science  that  it  enables  men  to  detect  the  pretender  and  unmask 
him.  But  Science  implies  a  knowledge  «>f  Nature  and  her  immu- 
table Laws;  and  who  can  seriously  doubt  the  importance  of  this 
to  the  Farmer?  For  instan- 

We  all  know  that  a  field  of  one  hundred  acres  entirely  devoted 
during  five  successive  years  to  a  rotation  of  Corn,  Oats,  Clover, 
Potatoes  and  Wheat  respectively.  \v«uil«l  yield  a  far  greater  product 
than  would  that  same  field  if  divided  into  live  emial  parts  and 
each  devoted  to  some  one  of  the-e  products  for  live  years  in  suc- 
cession. Experience  had  settled  thi-<.  before  Science  was  allowed 
to  say  anything  about  it.  When  at  last  interrogated,  for  tin-  rear 
son  or  law  which  underlies  this  fa<-t,  Science  made  answer  that 
each  plant  requires  and  e\a«-t>  its  peculiar  nutriment,  and  that 
this  is  relatively  if  not  absolutely  e\hau>ted  by  growing  that  crop 
on  the  same  land  year  after  year.  It  m;.y  !>«•  that  the  five  plants 
above  named  all  require  Lime,  Potash,  Phosphorus,  Ammo- 
nia, Carbon,  &e.,  which,  beside  Water,  are  the  chief  elements  of 
vegetable  structure  ;  but,  if  so,  they  require  them  in  very  un- 
equal proportions  or  quantities.  Grown  each  on  its  own  twenty 
acres  throughout  the  five  years,  one  will  have  exhausted  the 
Lime,  yet  have  an  abundance  of  Phosphorus  left ;  another  will 
have  absorbed  all  the  Potash  in  its  division,  yet  hardly  tasted  the 
Lime  ;  and  so  on  ;  while,  had  the  hundred  acres  been  sown  in  rota- 
tion or  succession  entirely  to  one  and  then  to  another  of  these 
crops,  or  had  the  five  been  alternated  from  portion  to  portio* 


12  WHAT  THE  SISTER  ARTS 

with  each  succeeding  year,  they  would  all  have  yielded  abundant- 
ly, yet  left  no  portion  of  the  soil  utterly  robbed  of  any  single 
element.  Experience  affirms  that  the  rotation  of  crops  has  taken 
far  more  from  the  soil  than  the  adverse  system,  which  Science 
unhesitatingly  corroborates,  and  adds  that,  while  rotation  has 
taken  more  from  the  soil,  it  has  nevertheless  left  it  in  better  con- 
dition to  bear  future  harvests ;  and  this  Experience  will  in  due 
time  ratify  and  establish. 

Here,  then,  Experience  has  been  outstripped  by  Science,  whose 
torch  irradiates  the  Futqre  with  light  drawn  directly  from  the 
Present,  not  reflected  from  the  Past.  Experience  has  shown  that 
a  particular  rotation  is  preferable  to  the  growth  of  the  same 
plant  on  the  same  soil  for  a  succession  of  years  ;  but  Science  fore- 
casts beyond  this,  and  affirms  that  any  possible  rotation  must  be 
preferable  to  incessant  and  unchanging  repetition,  for  reasons 
which  lie  deep  in  the  bosom  of  Nature  and  are  inseparable  from 
her  very  vitality.  As  surely  as  Experience  has  demonstrated  the 
expediency  of  keeping  cattle  where  they  have  grass  and  water 
both,  instead  of  shutting  up  a  part  where  they  will  have  grass  enough 
but  no  water,  and  the  residue  where  they  will  have  abundance 
of  water  but  no  grass  or  other  food,  so  clearly  does  Science  dem- 
onstrate the  advantage  of  growing  different  crops  in  rotation. 

But  in  answering  our  first  question, — "  Why  should  different 
crops  be  grown  in  rotation  ?"  Science  has  thrown  open  a  wide 
field  of  profitable  inquiry.  We  have  seen  that  five  good  crops 
of  Indian  Corn  cannot  be  grown  off  the  same  ground  for  five  suc- 
cessive years,  unless  by  virtue  of  profuse  and  expensive  manur- 
ing; because  each  crop  has  absorbed  an  undue  proportion  of  cer- 
tain elements  or  properties  essential  to  Corn,  leaving  others,  less 
vital  to  Maize,  but  more  necessary  to  Wheat,  Clover,  &c.,  undis- 
turbed in  the  soil.  We  now  know,  therefore,  that  any  average 
soil,  regarded  with  reference  to  any  particular  plant,  possesses 
certain  elements  in  excess,  while  it  is  deficient  in  others ;  and  we 
demand  of  Science  that  she  tell  us  just  how  we  may  most  cheaply 
and  easily  supply,  not  elements  of  fertility  in  general,  but  those 
particular  elements  which  are  deficient,  considered  with  reference 


TEACH   AS  TO   FARMING.  13 

to  our  purpose.  We  desire  not  to  spend  our  time  and  means  in 
filling  a  soil  on  which  Wheat  is  never  to  be  grown  with  costly 
elements  which  Wheat  alone  will  require  or  take  up,  but  to  invest 
each  dollar  and  day,  so  far  as  we  may,  in  enriching  that  soil  with 
the  elements  wherein  it  is  now  deficient,  but  which  our  next  crop 
will  nevertheless  require.  In  other  words,  since  it  is  not  our 
practice  to  plow,  plant  and  cultivate  our  entire  farms — forests, 
ravines  and  all — because  we  purpose  to  harvest  Indian  Corn  ami 
Wheat  from  a  small  part  of  them,  so  we  desire  to  exercise  a  like 
discrimination  and  practice  a  like  economy  in  the  production  or 
purchase  and  application  of  manures.  And  to  do  this,  we  appeal 
to  Science  for  an  analysis  of  the  diil'-rent  soils  of  our  various 
fields,  to  determine  wherein  each  i-  .1. -ticicnt,  each  relatively  re- 
dundant, that  we  may  apply  various  tertili/ers  accordingly.  And 
this  is  the  basis,  and  all  the  basis,  of  Scientific  Farming. 

Let  me  linger  still  on  this  topic  of  Book-farming,  and  pile  il- 
lustration  on  illustration  of  its  true  character  and  manifold  advan- 
Yoii  may  tell  me  that  this  U  needless,  Imt  I  know  better  ; 
since  1  know  there  arc  tens  »>f  thousands  of  termers  in  every 
quarter — nay,  right  here  in  Indiana — some  of  them.  I  doubt  not, 
now  before  me — who  take  no  agricultural  paper — nay,  no  paper 
at  all  ! — because  they  think  they  raw'/  afford  it! — that  it  has  no 
other  than  a  speculative  or  fancy  value  for  their  use — that  they 
would  be  the  poorer  for  taking  it !  Now  I  maintain  that  no  farmer 
or  artisan  that  can  read  can  really  afford  to  do  without  at  least 
three  weekly  newspapers ;  one  to  bring  him  the  general  news, 
politics  and  social  movements  of  his  time  ;  aunt  her  to  teach  him 
whatever  of  discovery,  invention  or  improvement  may  from  time 
to  time  be  made  in  his  own  pursuit  or  calling ;  and  the  third  to 
keep  him  advised  of  whatever  of  interest  may  transpire  in  his 
own  locality  or  county.  He  may  be  so  very  poor  and  inefficient 
that  he  is  justified  in  obtaining  two  of  these  by  exchanges  with 
his  equally  luckless  neighbors  ;  but  these  three  he  should  at  least 
read  every  week,  because  ho  cannot  afford  to  be  without  the  in- 
telligence they  bring  him.  And,  while  there  are  thousands  who 
are  bringing  up  sons  for  farmers  and  daughters  for  housewives 
without  taking  a  periodical  or  even  owning  a  book  that  treats  of 


14  WHAT  THE  SISTER  ARTS 

Farming  or  Housewifery,  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  this  stupid  pre- 
judice against  Book-farming  has  been  already  sufficiently  dealt 
with,  since  it  is  this  day  so  potent  and  mischievous.  Bear  with 
me,  then,  while  I  attempt  to  let  in  some  daylight  upon  it  through 
the  relation  of  a  few  homely  facts : 

I  was  visiting  some  old  friends  in  Vermont  last  summer,  when 
I  observed  in  the  garden  of  one  of  them  the  most  thrifty  and 
luxuriant  grape-vine  that  I  had  ever  seen  growing  in  so  cold  a  cli- 
mate.    Now  it  is  one  advantage  possessed  by  the  class  of  ig- 
norant cultivators  to  which  I  belong  over  that  sort  who  not  merely 
know  nothing   but  glory  in  it,  that  we  are  not  at  all  reluctant  to 
confess  our  ignorance  when  we  see  a  chance  of  thus  mitigating  it. 
I,  therefore,  at  once  asked  the  lady  whose  vine  this  was,  to  tell 
me  by  what  means  she  had  insured  it  such  vigor  and  productive- 
ness ;  and  she  replied  that  she  had  made  it  her  rule,  ever  since 
the  vine  was  set  there,  to  throw  a  pailfull  of  soap-suds  at  its  root 
at  the  close  of  every  washing-day.     Again :  in  the  same  garden  I 
remarked  a  scar  or  ring  around  each  plum-tree,  just  above  the 
ground,  and,  on  inquiry,  ascertained  that  these  trees  had  been 
girdled  last  spring  by  some  malicious  scoundrel,  who  had  halted 
one  dark  night,  on  his  way  from  the  gutter  to  the  State  prison,  to 
perpetrate  this  dastardly   outrage.     The  owner  discovered  the 
mischief  early  next  morning,  and,  having  a  pot  of  copal  var- 
nish in  the  house,  speedily  applied  it  with  a  brush .  to  the  wound 
on  each  tree,  covering  each  with  a  coat  of  varnish  ;  and  by  this 
means  every  tree  was  saved.     When  I  saw  them  in  midsummer, 
they  were  as  green  and  thrifty  as  any  trees  within  miles.     Now 
I  do  not  stand  here  to  maintain  that  soap-suds  will  always  insure 
an  abundance  of  fine  grapes,  nor  that  a  coating  of  varnish,  sea- 
sonably applied,  will  always   save  girdled   trees ;    for  I  do  not 
know  such  to  be  the  fact.     I  trust  further  experience  and  inquiry 
will  cast  light  on  both  points — that  soap-suds  will  be  withheld 
from  the  door-yard  and  given  to  the  grape-vines ;  and  that  every 
tree  that  any  prowling  rascal  may  girdle  will  be  promptly  coated 
with  varnish — until  we  shall  determine  under  what  circumstances, 
and  with  what  limitations,  potash  or  soda  is  beneficial  to  grapes 
and  varnish  an  antidote  for  girdling.     The  point  I  make  is  this, 


TEACH  AS  TO   FAKMING.  15 

that  no  sane  former,  having  heard  this  relation,  will  henceforth 
throw  away  his  soap-suds  or  neglect  varnishing  his  girdled  trees, 
unless  he  learns  some  reason  for  doing  otherwise  ;  and  that,  if 
he  would  do  so  on  the  strength  of  my  mere  narration,  he  ought 
many  times  rather  to  do  so  had  he  found  these  same  recipes  in 
an  Agricultural  paper  or  manual,  where  the  chances  are  ten  to 
one  that  it  would  not  have  found  a  place  unless  on  the  strength 
of  testimony  more  reliable  than  mine,  because  founded  on  a  wider 
and  more  varied  experience,  and  subjected  to  a  more  rigid  scru- 
tiny. 

Take  another  case :  My  friend  Dr.  R.  T.  Underhill  was  a 
physician  in  extensive  practice  some  twenty  years  ago,  when  in 
the  prime  of  life,  having  ber»mr  heartily  tired  of  gallipots  and 
bone-sawing,  he  shook  off  the  dust  of  our  city  from  his  feet,  and 
resolved  henceforth  to  live  an  hom-st  lite  as  a  grower  of  fruits. 
He  went  forty  miles  up  the  Hudson,  bought  a  neck  of  land,  and 
commenced  the  cultivation  of  the  Grape,  which  he  has  since  pro- 
secuted with  scientific  knowledge,  untii-iiii;  energy,  and  at  length 
with  decided  success,  He  ha<  probably  assuaged  more  sutK'rinij 
with  his  Crapes  than  h«-  •  '<-<\  by  his  drugs;  he  has  grown 

considerably  younger  by  hi*  t\v»-iit\  years'  fanning,  and  is  now 
taking  his  place  among  the  most  brisk  and  genial  of  our  youth — 
an  admirable  specimen  of  that  branch  of  "  Young  America  "  which 
does  not  hate  to  work  nor  long  for  opportunity  to  steal. 

Well :  the  Doctor,  since  the  untimely  death  of  the  lamented 
Downing,  stands,  probably,  at  the  head  of  our  fruit-growers,  with 
whom  one  knotty  problem  of  tin-  la>t  few  years  has  been  — 
how  to  counteract  the  ravages  of  the  Curculio,  which  is  nearly 
robbing  us  of  plums,  for  which  his  taste  is  equal  to  ours,  while  in 
the  matter  of  gratifying  it  he  is  <l'-ei.le<lly  ahead  of  us.  By  the 
time  he  has  taken  his  quota,  the  plums  left  on  a  tree,  or  score  of 
trees,  are  not  worth  gathering.  But  Dr.  Underhill,  by  long  study 
and  careful  observation,  has  discovered  the  means  of  completely 
outwitting  him.  He  has  found,  by  watching  and  noting  her  move- 
ments, that  the  female  Curculio  will  not  deposit  her  eggs  where 
they,  when  the  plums  containing  them  drop,  will  fall  into  the 


16  WHAT   THE   SISTER  ARTS 

water,  her  instinct  teaching  her  that  they  will  thus  be  drowned. 
Taking  advantage  of  this  instinct,  the  Doctor  plants  his  plum-trees 
on  the  bank  of  a  stream  or  pond,  and  gives  the  trunks  such  an 
inclination  that  all  their  branches  overhang  the  water.  Thus  the 
desolater  is  checkmated  by  his  own  instinct,  and  the  fruit  pre- 
served from  his  ravages.  I  know  nothing  cleverer  in  its  way 
than  this  device. 

Now  I  suppose  there  is  no  contemner  of  '  Book-farming '  so 
mulish  or  so  dull  that  he  would  not,  after  hearing  of  this  device, 
take  advantage  of  any  brook  or  pond  he  might  have  on  his 
premises,  and  set  his  plum-trees  where  they  will  be  safe  from 
the  Curculio.  But  suppose  the  discovery  had  been  made  by  some 
fruit-grower  of  the  last  century,  and  duly  recorded  in  a  book ; 
had  since  been  subjected  to  a  thousand  ordeals,  and  had  passed 
triumphant  through  them  all — would  it  have  been  less  acceptable 
or  less  valuable  than  it  now  is  1  If  it  be  worth  our  while  to  learn 
at  all,  what  difference  can  be  imagined  between  the  knowledge 
founded  on  a  neighbor's  experience  and  that  contained  in  a  book? 
If  there  be  any,  are  not  the  odds  altogether  in  favor  of  that  pre- 
scription which  has  undergone  the  wider  scrutiny  and  been  sub- 
jected to  the  more  rigorous  criticism  ? 

And  here  let  me  speak  of  another,  who  more  recently  shook 
off  the  dust  of  our  City's  pavements  to  spend  the  later  half  of  his 
life  on  a  farm.  I  allude  to  Professor  JAMES  J.  MAPES,  whose 
fame  as  an  Agriculturist  must  have  reached  very  many  among 
you.  It  cannot  be  many  years — it  seems  to  me  but  five  or  six — 
since  Professor  Mapes,  who  was  extensively  engaged  in  Sugar- 
Refining  and  had  heavy  dealings  in  Sugar — came  to  a  dead  halt, 
or  rather  a  dead  smash.  Stripped  of  means  and  of  credit,  he  felt 
too  old  to  launch  again  on  the  dangerous  sea  of  Commerce,  whose 
waves  had  so  lately  and  so  deeply  engulphed  him  ;  so  he  hired  a 
bit  of  land  in  New  Jersey,  removed  his  family  thither,  and  resolved 
to  turn  the  chemical  and  other  scientific  knowledge  which  had  so 
little  availed  him  as  a  Sugar-Refiner,  to  account  in  the  novel 
vocation  of  a  farmer.  He  was  very  destitute,  and  of  course  got 
on  but  slowly  at  first ;  and  when  he  first  undertook  to  lecture  in 


TEACH  AS  TO   FARMING.  17 

illustration  of  Farming  as  a  Science,  I  well  remember  how  very 
general  was  the  prejudice  and  derision  he  encountered.  But  he 
persevered  both  in  farming  and  lecturing ;  and  he  has  gloriously 
succeeded.  I  presume  there  were  many  errors  in  his  earlier  in- 
culcations ;  there  may  be  some  yet,  for  he  is  a  genius,  and  genius 
is  too  apt  to  leap  hastily  to  sweeping  conclusions  from  inadequate 
premises.  But,  whatever  his  faults,  the  root  of  the  matter  \vas  in 
him,  and  his  career  has  proved  it.  As  a  Lecturer,  an  Editor,  and 
a-  a  Practical  Farmer,  he  is  enriching  the  vocation  he  has  i-hosen 
and  by  no  means  impoverishing  himself.  Beginning  with  nothing, 
he  cannot  have  cleared  less  than  $20,000  in  the  last  six  years,  and 
his  income  must  now  be  at  least  $5,000  per  annum.  And  this  is 
not  all  made  by  merely  talking  and  writing  about  farming,  but  in 
good  part  by  actual  work.  For  example :  He  last  year  bought 
ten  acres  of  naturally  good  but  exhausted  and  weedy  land  adjoin- 
ing him  for  $250  per  acre,  pulverized  and  fertilized  it  thoroughly 
to  the  depth  of  two  j'ivt,  planted  it  with  cabbages  as  close  to- 
gether as  they  could  grow,  and  by  the  sale  of  his  first  crop  paid 
for  the  mamnv,  labor  and  land,  having  the  latter  all  clear  at  the 
year's  end.  and  in  far  better  condition  than  when  he  bought  it. 
< 'an  any  enemy  of  '  Book-Farming1  beat  this?  Or  is  there  any 
of  them  who  would  not  like  to  know  exactly  how  this  land  was 
fertilized  and  tilled,  even  though  he  should  be  obliged  to  read  it 
in  a  book  or  periodical  ? 

III.  Let  me  next  illustrate  the  importance  and  advantages  of 
the  careful  Analysis  of  Soils  : 

A  friend  bought,  one  year  ago.  a  small  farm  which  had  pre- 
viously been  under  decent  or  ordinary  cultivation,  but  which,  it 
appears,  had  been  for  many  years  mainly  fertilized  with  Gypsum 
or  Plaster  of  Paris — an  excellent  thing  in  its  place,  and  which  had 
doubtless  done  the  land  good  service.  But  the  new  farmer's 
brother  is  a  thorough  Chemist,  devoting  much  attention  to  Agri- 
culture ;  and  he  was  invited  to  analyze  the  soil  of  this  farm  with 
a  view  to  its  prospective  and  economical  improvement.  Careful 
Analysis  showed  a  signal  deficiency  of  Lime,  but  a  superabund- 
ance of  Sulphur  and  other  ingredients  of  Plaster.  Of  course,  at 


18  WHAT  THE  SISTER  ARTS 

each  successive  application  of  Plaster  the  plants  took  up  the  Lime 
only,  leaving  all  the  residue  to  lie  inert  in  the  soil ;  and  so  the 
old  farmer  had  for  years  been  feeding  his  soil,  at  the  rate  of 
twenty  to  thirty  cents  per  bushel,  with  the  requisite  Lime  brought 
from  a  distance  in  the  form  of  Piaster,  while  there  was  far  better 
Lime  burned  all  around  him,  and  for  sale  in  abundance  at  six 
cents  a  bushel !  The  loss  thus  incurred  may  have  averaged  fifty 
dollars  per  annum — all  for  want  of  an  AnalvV  that  might  have 
cost  ten  to  twenty  dollars.  And  there  are  tens  of  thousands  to- 
day farming  just  as  blindly  as  did  this  old  farmer. 

Can  there  be  any  rational  wonder  that  farmers  seldom  grow 
rich  by  such  Farming  ?  How  is  a  wise  and  judicious  economy  of 
means  to  be  attained  if  ignorance  and  waste  are  to  reap  the  re- 
wards properly  due  only  to  intelligence  and  frugality  1  If  I  were 
to  buy  paper  and  other  materials  used  in  my  business  as  care- 
lessly and  blindly  as  this  old  farmer  bought  manures  and  fertilized 
his  land,  I  could  not  continue  to  print  newspapers  for  a  single 
year.  Wiser,  more  prudent,  more  intelligent  publishers,  would 
undersell  and  supplant  me,  and  I  must  fail  and  be  driven  into 
some  vocation  where  ignorance,  heedlessness  and  unthrift  secure 
the  rewards  designed  by  Providence  for  intelligence,  industry  and 
economy. 

IV.  But-  let'  us  pause  at  that  word  Industry.  "  By  Industry 
we  thrive,"  is  an  old  saw,  which  is  very  well  in  it's  place  ;  but  the 
truth  contained  in  proverbs  is  so  curtly  expressed  that  it  often 
misleads  more  than  it  directs.  Industry  is  indeed  essential  to 
thrift,  and  farmers,  like  other  men,  often  need  to  be  reminded 
of  it.  When  I  note  one  who  is  overwhelmed  with  "  business," 
which  calls  him  away  from  home  two  or  three  days  in  each  week, 
and  keeps  him  hanging  about  the  tavern  or  store  while  his  boys 
are  at  play  and  his  potatoes  crying  for  the  hoe,  I  know  whither 
that  farmer  is  tending,  and  can  guess  about  how  long  he  will  have 
any  land  to  mismanage.  And  I  think  that,  in  the  average,  farmers 
waste  more  hours  than  mechanics.  They  have  more  idle  time — 
not  necessarily,  but  quite  commonly  so  regarded  —  through  bad 
weather,  severe  cold,  too  much  wet,  &c.  than  falls  to  the  lot  of 


TEACH  AS  TO  FARMING.  19 

almost  any  other  class ;  and  it  is  very  easy  to  allure  many  of 
them  away  to  shoot  at  other  men's  turkies  when  they  should  be 
growing  food  for  their  own.  But  while  many  waste  precious 
hours,  quite  as  much  through  heedlessness  and  want  of  system  as 
indolence,  I  know  another  class  who  slave  themselves  out  of  com- 
fort and  out  of  thought  by  incessant,  excessive  drudgery, — who  are 
so  absorbed  in  obtaining  the  means  of  living  that  they  never  find 
time  to  live — who  drive  through  the  day  so  that  their  bones  ache 
and  their  minds  are  foggy  at  night ;  and  are  so  overworked 
through  the  week  that  they  can  neither  worship  God  nor  enjoy 
the  society  of  their  families  on  the  Sabbath.  These  men  will 
often  tell  you  they  have  no  time  to  read,  which  is  just  as  rational 
as  for  the  captain  of  a  steamship  to  plead  a  want  of  time  to  con 
suit  his  compass  and  chart  or  keep  a  reckoning  of  his  ship's  pro- 
gress. No  time  to  read !  do  they  not  find  time  to  plant  and  sow, 
to  reap  and  mow,  and  r\vn  t<>  cat  and  sleep?  If  they  do,  then 
they  may  find  time,  if  they  will,  to  learn  how  to  apply  their  labor 
to  the  best  advantage  as  well  as  to  qualify  themselves  by  rest 
and  refreshment  for  working  at  all.  I  venture  the  assertion  that 
there  are  twenty  thousand  fanm-rs  in  Indiana  who  would  have 
been  wealthier  as  well  as  more  useful,  more  respected  and  happier 
men  this  day,  if  they  had  abstracted  ten  hours  per  week  from 
labor  during  all  their  adult  life,  and  devoted  those  hours  to  read- 
ing and  thought,  in  part  with  a  view  to  improvement  in  their  owa 
vocation,  but  in  part  also  looking  to  higher  and  nobler  ends  than 
even  this.  Some  men  waste  the  better  part  of  their  lives  in  dis- 
sipation and  idleness ;  but  this  does  not  excuse  in  others  the  waste 
of  time  equally  precious  in  mere  animal  effort  to  heap  up  goods 
and  comforts  which  we  must  leave  behind  so  soon  and  for  ever. 

V.  I  read  very  few  old  books ;  I  can  hardly  find  time  to 
master  the  best  new  ones ;  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  those  who 
do  read  the  very  oldest  treatises  on  Agriculture  which  have  sur- 
vived the  ravages  of  tii  .  will  find  Cato,  or  Seneca,  or  Columella, 
or  whoever  may  be  the  author  in  hand,  talking  to  the  farmers  of 
his  day  very  much  as  our  farmers  are  now  generally  talked  to, 
and  inculcating  substantially  the  same  truths  :  "  Plow  deeper,  fer- 
tilize more  thoroughly,  cultivate  less  land,  and  cultivate  it  better ;" 


20  WHAT  THE  SISTER  ARTS 

such,  I  have  no  doubt,  has  been  the  burden  of  Agricultural  admo- 
nition and  exhortation  from  the  days  of  Homer  and  Moses.     It 
seems  incredible  to  modern  skepticism  that  millions  of  Hebrews 
could  have  for  ages  inhabited  the  narrow  and  rocky  land  of  Judea ; 
and  it  would  be  hard  to  believe,  if  we  were  ignorant  of  the  Agra- 
rian law  of  Moses,  under  which,  as  population  increased,  the  ina- 
lienable patrimony  of  each  family  became  smaller  and  smaller, 
and  the  cultivation  of  course  better  and  better.     Very  few  of  us 
are  at  all  aware  of  the  average  capacity  of  an  arable  acre,  if  sub- 
jected to  thorough  scientific  culture.     Many  a  family  of  four  or 
five  persons  has  derived  a  generous  subsistence  for  year  after 
year  from  a  single  acre.     The  story  of  a  farmer  who  was  com 
pelled  to  sell  off  half  his  little  estate  of  eight  or  ten  acres,  and 
was  most  agreeably  surprised  by  finding  the  reward  of  his  labor 
quite  as  large  when  it  was  restricted  to  the  remaining  half  as 
when  it  was  bestowed  on  the  whole,  was  very  current  in  Roman 
literature  two  thousand  years  ago.     Why  it  is  that  men  persist  in 
running  over  much  land,  instead  of  thoroughly  cultivating  a  little, 
defying  not  only  Science,  but  Experience,  the  wisdom  of  the  fire- 
side as  well  as  that  of  the  laboratory,  can  only  be  accounted  for 
by  supposing  that  men  have  a  natural  passion  for  annexation,  a 
pride  in  extended  dominion,  or  else  a  natural  repugnance  to  fol- 
lowing good  advice.     Surely,  if  Wisdom  ever  cried  in  the  streets, 
she  has  been  bawling  herself  hoarse  these  twenty-five  centuries 
against  the  folly  of  maintaining   fences  and  paying  taxes  on  a 
hundred  acres  of  land  in  order  to  grow  a  crop  that  might  have 
•been  produced  from  ten. 

But  the  sinners  against  light  and  knowledge  in  our  day  have 
far  less  excuse  than  their  remote  ancestors,  or  even  their  own 
•grandfathers.  It  was  always  well  to  urge  deep  plowing  and  the  like ; 
but  so  long  as  the  plow  was  but  a  forked  log  or  stick,  with  one 
prong  sharpened  for  a  coulter,  and  the  other  employed  as  a  beam, 
it  was  hardly  possible  to  plow  thoroughly.  In  our  day,  however, 
the  advance  from  wooden  plows  through  iron  points  nnd  iron 
mold-boards,  to  iron  plows,  steel  points,  steel  plows,  and  subsoil- 
ing,  has  been  so  signal  and  decisive  that  the  shiftless  creature 
who  with  his  two  lean  ponies  skims  and  skins  over  the  fields  he 


TEACH   AS  TO   FAHMIXG.  21 

ought  either  to  cultivate  or  let  alone ;  scratching  their  surface  mild- 
ly to  a  depth  of  three  or  four  inches  ;  sins  against  such  an  array  of 
light  and  knowledge  that  he  is  for  less  excusable  than  his  ancestors 
who  did  not  pretend  to  plow  at  all,  but  stuck  in  a  seed  here  and 
there  as  they  could  easiest  find  a  hole  or  make  one,  and  trusted 
to  Providence  to  give  them  an  undeserved  return  for  their  spirits 
less  and  frivolous  efforts. 

VI.  The  three  main  features  of  Agricultural  advancement 
among  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  now-a-days  are:  1.  DEEP  PLOWING, 
OR  SUB-SOILING  ;  2.  DRAINING  ;  3.  IRRIGATION.  I  am  quite  aware 
that  Draining  should  take  juwih-iHv  in  the  order  of  time,  yet  I 
believe,  in  point  of  fact,  Deep  Plowing  has  led  to  Draining,  by 
demonstrating  its  necessity,  and  not  Draining  to  Deep  Plowing. 
\V  ulViT  immensely  from  drouth  in  this  country.  Probably 
the  aggregate  annual  loss  from  drouth  alone  throughout  the  Union 
decidedly  exceeds,  taking  one  year  with  another,  the  entire  cost 
of  our  Federal  (jovorninent.  Yet  we  know  that  the  roots  of 
most  plants  will  descend  to  moisture,  no  matter  how  dry  the  sur- 
face, if  the  earth  beneath  them  is  porous,  mellow  and  inviting. 
Hetuv  wo  reali/ethe  immense  importance  of  Deep  Plowing  ;  and, 
after  doubling  our  teams  and  sinking  our  deepest  plows  to  the 
beam,  we  summon  to  our  aid  the  Sub-Soil  implement,  and  go 
down  a  depth  beyond  that  of  anv  single  furrow.  But  we  soon 
find  that  the  pulverization  of  the  suit-soil,  thus  attained,  has  no 
permanent  effect ;  that  the  water  that  leaches  down  to  it  settles 
it  into  a  compact,  solid  mass,  which  the  roots  cannot  penetrate  ; 
and  all  our  sub-soiling  needs  to  be  done  over  again.  The  remedy 
that  readily  suggests  itself  is  the  freeing  of  the  sub-soil  from 
water  by  drains  sunk  below  it,  say  three  to  six  rods  apart,  and 
filled  half  way  up  with  pebbles,  with  flat  stones  forming  a  sort 
of  culvert,  or,  still  better,  laid  with  draining-tile  or  hollow  brick, 
placed  end  to  end,  and  forming  a  continuous  channel  from  the 
highest  part  of  any  slope  or  grade  to  t'he  brook  which  drains  it. 
And  now  the  sub-soil,  supposing  the  drains  well  made  and  the 
drainage-way  sufficient,  is  readily  freed  from  any  water  settling 
into  it,  and  long  retains  the  porous  and  permeable  character  com- 
municated to  it  by  deep  plowing. 


22  WHAT  THE  SISTER  ARTS 

Of  course,  this  does  not  exhaust  the  good  effects  of  Draining. 
The  sub-soil,  thus  loosened  and  freed  from  excessive  moisture, 
becomes  a  source  of  food  as  well  as  drink  to  the  plants  growing 
above  it ;  for  that  it  is  capable  01  feeding  plants,  no  one,  who  has 
observed  the  rank  vegetation  growing  out  of  the  earth  thrown  up 
by  draining  or  digging,  can  doubt.  Instead  of  being  like  a  slough 
in  wet  weather  and  like  a  brick  in  dry,  the  sub-soil  retains  suffi- 
cient moisture  to  cheer  the  plants,  but  too  little  to  indurate  itself. 
And  the  mean  temperature  of  the  soil,  hitherto  lowered  by  the 
constant  evaporation  of  the  water  contained  in  the  sub-soil,  is 
raised  several  degrees  by  the  sun's  rays,  no  longer  counteracted  by 
the  evaporating  process — at  least,  not  to  any  such  extent  as  be- 
fore— so  that  the  plants  grow  more  luxuriantly,  mature  more 
rapidly,  and  so  are  earlier  out  of  danger  from  frost.  And  beside 
this,  the  constant  passage  of  currents  of  air  through  that  portion 
of  the  drain  not  occupied  by  water — and  each  drain  should  have 
an  opening  at  its  head  as  well  as  at  its  mouth — is  an  additional 
source  of  fertility  through  the  chemical  combinations  it  insures. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  overstate  the  value,  the  importance,  the 
profit  of  Draining. 

Many  are  accustomed  to  say,  "  This  land  needs  no  draining ;" 
meaning  that  it  is  not  habitually  too  wet.  But  draining  proves 
as  useful,  if  it  is  not  as  imperatively  necessary,  on  dry  soil  as  on 
wet.  On  dry  lands  it  is  required  that  the  sub-soil,  once  broken 
up  and  pulverized,  shall  not,  by  the  settling  of  moisture  therein 
during  the  wet  season,  be  hardened  and  rendered  impervious 
again  ;  these  lands  need  to  be  rendered  porous  and  penetrable  by 
roots  to  a  greater  depth  because  of  their  dryness ;  they  need  to  be 
shielded  from  the  pernicious  effects  of  constant  evaporation  in 
cooling  the  soil,  and  thus  retarding  the  growth  of  its  plants. 
There  is  very  much  land  not  worth  tilling ;  but  there  is  none  that 
will  justify  tillage  which  would  not  reward  Draining. 

Of  Irrigation,  we  in  this  country  know  very  little  by  experi- 
ence ;  but  we  are  destined  soon  to  know  more,  and  to  be  profited 
by  our  knowledge.  True,  there  are  lands  that  ma^  be  readily 
drained  and  sub-soiled  that  cannot  so  readily  be  irrigated,  owing 


TEACH  AS  TO   FARMING.  23 

to  their  elevation  and  a  deficient  supply  of  water.  I  apprehend, 
however,  that  these  lands  are  not  to  be  found  in  Indiana,  nor  in 
any  other  Prairie  State,  whose  first  peculiarities  that  strike  a 
stranger  are  a  superabundance  of  water  in  tin.-  rainy  season  and 
a  scarcity  thereof  in  the  dry.  The  time  is  at  hand  when  you 
will  here  require  extensive  and  powerful  pumping  apparatus,  if 
only  to  raise  water  for  your  heavy  stocks  of  cattle  and  convey  it  to 
the  pastures  wherein  they  will  be  confined ;  and  why  not  raise 
enough  of  the  grateful  fluid  to  refresh  pastures  and  cattle  alike  ? 

But  even  though  this  assured  and  ample  resource  were  non- 
existent, I  maintain  that  water  enough  foils  on  your  fields  every 
year  to  keep  them  fresh  and  luxuriant  through  the  summer,  if  it 
were  saved  and  not  wasted.  But  most  of  it  falls  during  the 
seasons  when  least  is  wanted,  and  is  suffered  to  run  off  to  the 
rivers  and  the  ocean,  carrying  very  much  of  the  best  juices  of  the 
soil  along  with  it,  when  it  should  be  retained  in  ponds  and 
voirs  to  be  pumped  into  barn-yards  or  drawn  oil'  to  irrigate  the 
fields  during  the  fervid  heats  of  summer.  The  apparent  difficulty 
of  doing  this  would  vanish  and  the  presumed  expense  be  materi- 
ally lessened  on  careful  consideration. 

I  know  not  that  I  have  traversed  any  country  with  more  lively 
interest  than  beautiful,  bountiful,  picturesque  Lombardy.  The 
dark  pall  of  Austrian  despotism  enveloping  it  did  not  suffice  to 
dim  its  natural  loveliness  and  luxuriance,  so  greatly  improved  by 
the  labor  and  genius  of  Man.  It  seems  to  have  grown  into  its 
system  of  almost  universal  irrigation  by  imperceptible  and  un- 
marked degrees,  and  to  be  now  producing  double  hur\  ests  annually 
as  the  result  of  some  fortuitous  impulse  rather  than  of  foresight 
and  deliberate  calculation.  The  magnificent  plain  of  Upper  Italy, 
which  has  for  so  many  centuries  been  the  field  of  combat  where 
Goth  and  Latin,  Frank  and  Hun,  Gaul  and  German,  have  struggled 
for  the  mastery  of  Europe,  slopes  almost  imperceptibly  from 
the  Alps  to  the  Po,  and  the  impetuous  torrents  which  tear  the 
rocky  sides  of  the  snow-crowned  precipices  are  arrested  and  chas- 
tened in  the  blue  Lakes  which  lie  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
smiling  serenely  out  upon  the  plain.  Thence  the  waters  proceed 


24  WHAT  THE   SISTER  ARTS 

with  a  more  gentle  and  measured  cadence  to  the  great  River, 
and  are  drawn  off  and  stayed  from  point  to  point  to  fill  the  irri- 
gating canals  and  insure  a  rich  reward  to  the  husbandman's  labors. 
Let  any  stream  from  heavy  rains  become  a  raging,  foaming, 
milky  torrent,  and  its  waters  have  a  value  which  the  pure  element 
could  not  command,  and  are  drawn  off  on  every  side  until  the 
canals  and  reservoirs  are  filled  and  all  danger  of  inundation  pre- 
cluded. Thus  the  waters  are  most  valuable  for  irrigation  just 
when  they  are  most  easily  and  abundantly  obtainable  for  that 
purpose.  The  water  which  has  irrigated  one  fertile  garden  or 
field,  far  from  being  exhausted,  has  been  rendered  more  nourish- 
ing thereby,  and  may  now  be  drawn  off  to  fertilize  the  next  field, 
lying  an  inch  or  so  lower,  and  thence  to  the  next,  and  so  on  to  the 
river,  enriching  and  gladdening  all  it  touches  on  its  way.  Irrigation 
is  the  life-blood  of  Lombardy ;  shall  it  be  nothing,  teach  nothing, 
to  us? 

If  there  be  a  country  on  earth  which  one  would  suppose  irriga- 
tion unsuited  to,  Great  Britain  is  that  country.  Her  exceedingly 
moist,  cool  climate,  coupled  with  her  compact,  clay  subsoil  (not 
universal,  but  very  extensive)  would  seem  to  render  a  deficiency 
of  moisture  one  of  the  very  last  evils  to  be  apprehended  or  guarded 
against  in  her  Agriculture.  And  yet  her  best  farmers  are  now 
embarking  rapidly  and  extensively  in  Irrigation,  finding  it  prac- 
ticable and  immensely  profitable.  Not  here,  as  in  Lombardy,  is 
the  natural  flow  of  the  streams,  in  their  descent  from  the  hills  to 
the  rivers,  relied  on ;  but  great  pumps  are  employed,  raising 
water  by  steam  or  other  power  from  rivers,  brooks  and  ponds, 
to  a  hight  whence  it  is  carried  by  gravitation  through  metallic 
and  gutta-percha  pipes  to  every  point  where  it  is  needed.  Mr. 
Mechi,  the  ex-London  merchant,  who  retired  from  trade  with  a 
competency  to  earn  another  by  scientific  farming,  takes  the  lead 
in  this  application,  and  his  estimates  of  the  increased  productive- 
ness of  lands  by  reason  of  irrigation  and  the  profits  thus  secured 
would  seem  wild  to  any  audience  unfamiliar  with  the  subject.  I 
may  state,  however,  that  he  fixes  the  expense  of  conveying  his 
manures  in  liquid  form  from  his  yard  to  every  portion  of  his  es- 
tate as  equivalent  to  one  penny  sterling  or  two  cents  per  cartload 


TEACH   AS  TO   FARMING.  25 

— that  is  to  say,  the  fertilizing  properties  which  were  contained 
in  a  tun  of  muck  or  compost  are  now  conveyed  to  the  soil  that 
requires  them  at  the  cost  of  one  penny.  That  loading,  teaming, 
unloading  and  spreading  in  the  old  way  must  have  cost  far  nunv 
than  this,  you  cannot  doubt :  beside,  the  fertilizing  liquid,  being 
entirely  free  from  seeds  or  weedy  germs  of  any  kind,  and  in  A 
condition  to  be  readily  and  totally  absorbed  by  plants,  must  he 
worth  twice  as  much  as  if  applied  in  the  old  way.  Now  consider 
that  this  load  of  manure  has  been  conveyed  through  and  applied 
with  many  tuns  of  water,  just  when  the  soil  is  most  thirsty,  and 
the  plants  most  needy,  and  you  can  readily  judge  that  the  tun  of 
manure  dissolved  in  water  and  applied  through  irrigating  pip -•-> 
at  the  cost  of  a  penny,  must  be  worth  at  least  thriee  as  nun-h  as 
the  same  tun  applied  in  the  crude,  solid  state,  at  a  cost  of  not 
less  than  thrice  that  sum.  But  I  must  not  dwell  on  details.  You 
have  the  general  idea,  and  can  follow  it  out  at  your  leisure  into 
all  its  necessary  results. 

VII.  What  the  Sister  Arts  teach  as  to  Agriculture  may  be  fair- 
ly summed  up  in  this  proposition  : 

THE  WORKMAN  SHOULD  BE  COMPLETELY  MASTER  OF  HIS  MATERIALS 
AND  ins  IMPLEMENTS.  He  should  first  thoroughly  understand,  in 
order  that  he  may  in  the  next  plaee  thoroughly  control,  the  ele- 
ments from  which  he  is  to  evolve  value  and  sustenance.  He  who 
should  undertake  to  build  a  ship,  in  ignorance  of  the  relative 
tenacity  and  resistance  to  pressure  of  the  various  woods  and 
metals,  would  rush  into  a  pursuit  for  which  he  had  no  capacity; 
so  would  he  who  should  undertake  the  running  of  a  steam-engine 
in  ignorance  of  the  nature  and  power  of  steam.  Yet  the  man 
who  attempts  to  farm  with  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  nature 
and  properties  of  Soils  in  general,  of  the  laws  of  Vegetation,  the 
qualities  and  peculiarities  of  the  particular  soils  whereof  his  farm 
is  composed,  and  the  cheapest  means  of  renovating  and  increas- 
ing their  fertility  and  productiveness,  stands  on  the  same  plat- 
form with  the  ignorant  shipwright  or  engineer,  and  braves  like 
disasters,  whereof  the  largest  share  will  naturally  fall  to  himself 
and  his  family.  Agriculture  is  a  pursuit  so  vast  in  its  scope,  so 
2 


26  WHAT   THE   SISTER  ARTS 

various  in  its  processes  and  objects,  that  it  is  difficult  to  lay  down 
a  general  rule  with  regard  to  it  that  will  admit  of  no  exceptions  ; 
yet  I  will  venture  to  propound  one,  which  is  as  follows :  The 
cultivator  whose  farm  is  not  more  valuable  and  more  productive  as 
one  result  of  each  year's  tillage,  does  not  understand  his  vocation, 
and  ought  to  learn  it  or  quit  it. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  single  field  of  observation  wherein  the  ex- 
tent and  disastrous  effects  of  ignorance  among  farmers  are  more 
strikingly  exhibited  than  in  that  of  Insect  Life  and  Ravages.  It 
has  pleased  the  All- Wise  to  subject  Agriculture  to  the  chances 
and  perils  of  Insect  depredations,  as  well  as  to  weeds,  drouth, 
frost,  inundation,  and  other  evils.  The  end  of  all  these  is  benefi- 
cence— the  evolution  and  discipline  of  Man's  capacities  through 
the  necessary  counteraction  and  combat.  Plants  and  domestic 
animals  rightfully  look  to  their  owner  for  efficient  protection ;  and 
he  who  allows  his  sheep  to  be  killed  by  wolves,  his  fowls  to  be 
carried  off  by  foxes,  or  his  grain  to  be  devoured  by  insects,  is 
culpably  faithless  to  his  dependents  and  his  duty.  Yet  how  list- 
lessly, thoughtlessly,  hopelessly,  do  we  see  farmers  stand  by 
while  their  crops  are  destroyed  by  worms,  birds,  or  weevil,  with- 
out seeming  to  know  that  they  have  anything  to  do  in  the  prem- 
ises 1  No  Turkish  fatalism  is  blinder  or  blanker  than  theirs.  It 
is  hardly  yet  six  weeks  since  I  saw  whole  counties  of  my  own 
State  covered  and  devastated  by  grasshoppers,  who  stripped  the 
dry  uplands  of  every  blade  of  grass,  almost  every  green  leaf, 
cutting  the  green  oats  from  their  stalks,  the  fruit  from  the  trees, 
devouring  corn  in  the  ear,  making  the  cleared  land  a  desert,  and 
pushing  the  cattle  to  the  very  verge  of  starvation.  Yet  there 
stood  the  farmers,  gazing  gloomily  from  day  to  day  at  the  de- 
struction of  their  cherished  hopes  of  a  harvest  and  the  utter  deso- 
lation of  the  whole  country,  yet  not  one  asking  of  another,  "  What 
shall  we  do  to  arrest  this  sweeping  ravage  ?  How  shall  we  most 
readily,  cheaply  and  surely  clear  our  lands  of  these  vermin  f 
I  do  not  pretend  to  know  what  the  proper  remedy  was  or  is ; 
but  this  I  do  know,  that,  had  /  been  one  of  these  farmers,  I 
would  have  found  a  remedy  or  bankrupted  myself  in  the  search. 
I  should  have  first  interrogated  the  best  authorities  on  Agriculture 


TEACH  AS  TO   FARMING.  27 

and  Natural  History,  and,  in  case  of  finding  no  guidance  there, 
I  should  have  sowed  one  acre  of  my  land  bountifully  with  Salt ; 
the  next  with  Plaster ;  the  next  perhaps  with  Nitre  ;  a  fourth 
with  Potash ;  and  so  on.  using  in  all  cases  substances  that  I  knew 
would  be  paid  for  by  future  harvests,  unless  I  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve something  else  would  be  more  efficient.  Thus,  before  one 
week  had  elapsed,  I  would  have  found  some  caustic  that  grass- 
hoppers could  not  abide  ;  and  having  found  it,  1  would  have  ap- 
plied it  until  the  last  cormorant  among  them  had  been  driven  into 
the  woods  or  turned  over  on  his  back.  And  this  is  the  spirit  in 
which  every  such  invasion  should  be  met  and  overcome.  Had 
the  farmers  of  any  township  promptly  met,  when  the  ravage 
first  became  serious,  and  agreed  that  one  of  them  would  try  one 
possible  antidote  and  another  another,  according  as  they  happened 
respectively  to  have  the  material  at  command,  and  met  again  a  few 
evenings  later  to  compare  notes  on  the  results  of  their  several 
experiments,  they  could  not  have  failed  to  discover  an  efficient 
remedy  within  the  first  work.  But  they  did  nothing;  and  hence 
many  of  their  farms  are  a  desert,  their  Fall  crops  next  to  nothing, 
and  half  their  cattle  must  be  sold  or  killed  for  want  of  food. 

Our  farmers  generally  think  and  work  better  out  of  their  own 
vocation  than  in  it.  A  distant  and  towering  evil  arouses  their 
hostility  and  evokes  their  energy  much  more  readily  than  one  of 
a  less  imposing  but  more  mischievous  character  which  assails 
them  in  their  homes.  Let  the  word  go  forth,  "An  army  of  in- 
vaders have  landed !"  and  tens  of  thousands  snatch  instinctively 
their  muskets  and  take  the  road ;  but  here  are  armies  all  around 
them  who  are  plundering  them  worse  than  any  invaders  would, 
yet  hardly  attract  their  notice.  The  Hessians  who  were  hired  to 
subjugate  our  fathers  had  no  rest  for  their  feet  until  the  last  of 
them  was  killed,  captured  or  hunted  home,  more  than  seventy 
years  ago;  yet  their  attendant  parasite,  the  Hessian  Fly,  has  been 
plundering  us  ever  since  without  resistance,  and  is  now  as  formida- 
ble and  destructive  as  ever.  I  cannot  believe  flies  more  difficult 
to  conquer  than  men,  if  we  would  but  fairly  set  about  it. 

VII.     And  here  let  me  retrace  my  steps  to  illustrate  a  point  in 


28  WHAT  THE   SISTER   ARTS 

Industrial  Economy  which  I  have  already  incidentally  touched, 
but  have  riot  illustrated  as  its  importance  deserves,  and  as  the 
prevailing  misconceptions  render  necessary.  I  refer  to  The  Pro- 
portion of  Means  to  Ends,  which  the  Artisan  must  always  bear  in 
mind,  but  which  the  Farmer  seems  too  often  to  forget.  No  artifi- 
cer presumes  that  the  labor  and  materials  required  for  a  fine  table 
will  suffice  for  a  piano-forte  ;  nor  that  a  steam-engine  can  be  con- 
structed as  cheaply  as  a  churn.  But  the  farmer,  seeing  trees  and 
plants  grow  around  him  with  weed-like  facility  and  tenacity,  often 
indolently  imagines  that  any  tree  will  grow  so,  and  plants  his 
rare  and  delicate  fruit-trees,  if  he  plants  such  at  all,  as  if  they 
were  oaks  or  locusts.  But  Nature  is  inexorable  in  her  require- 
ment that  the  labor  and  care  essential  to  the  production  of  a 
choice  fruit  or  plant  shall  be  proportionate  to  the  value  of  the 
product.  You  may  grow  Pine  on  yellow  sand  or  Hickory  on 
blue  clay ;  but  if  you  want  choice  Pears  or  Peaches  you  must 
devote  much  labor  and  expense  to  preparing  and  enriching  the 
ground  wherein  your  trees  are  to  be  set.  Too  many  farmers,  not 
heeding  this  law,  or  supposing  that  Nature  may  somehow  be  cir- 
cumvented, obtain  worthless  fruit  or  none  at  all,  and  so  abandon 
the  culture  in  disgust  and  despair. 

There  is  not  now  one  grape-vine  or  fruit-tree,  except  of  the 
coarsest  and  commonest  kinds,  where  there  should  be  twenty, 
taking  one  State  with  another  ;  and  one  consequence  of  this  is  an 
enormous  and  perilous  consumption  of  flesh  as  food,  to  an  extent 
unknown  in  other  countries.  We  are  nationally  surfeited  with 
pork  and  tainted  with  Scrofula,  not  because  we  are  so  fond  of 
pork,  but  because,  for  an  important  portion  of  each  year,  the  ma- 
jority of  our  population  can  get  little  beside.  "  The  foolishness 
of  preaching"  will  never  suffice  to  correct  this  aberration ;  for 
men  who  work  must  eat,  though  their  food  be  not  the  best ;  but 
give  us  an  abundance  of  the  choicest  fruits  and  vegetables,  with 
farmers  who  know  how  to  grow  them,  and  truly  educated  house- 
wives, who  delight  in  preparing  and  serving  them,  and  we  shall 
enjoy  health,  elasticity  and  longevity  to  an  extent  now  unknown. 
A  flesh  diet  is  the  dearest,  the  least  palatable  and  the  least  whole- 
some, and  all  that  is  needed  to  wean  men  from  it  is  the  presenta- 


TEACH   AS  TO   FARMING.  29 

tion  of  a  better.  To  secure  this,  we  need  only  farmers  who  will 
feel  a  just  pride  in  having  the  finest  orchards  and  gardens — who 
will  surround,  not  merely  their  own  dwellings,  but  those  of  their 
tenants  and  helpers  also,  with  choice  trees ;  and  who  will  plant 
and  keep  planting  until  good  fruit  shall  be  so  abundant  that  it  can 
be  no  longer  an  object  to  steal  it. 

— But  I  detain  you  too  long,  though  many  suggestions  crowd 
upon  me  which  I  would  gladly  develop,  did  time  permit.  I  would 
like  to  illustrate  that  inspiring  theme,  THE  HARMONY  OF  IXTKK- 
ESTS  between  Farmer  and  Manufacturer,  \\liich  renders  each  new 
factory  or  workshop  established  in  an  agricultural  county  or  dis- 
trict a  positive  accession  of  wealth  to  every  farmer  who  lives 
within  the  radius  of  its  influence.  You  may  readily  perceive  the 
addition  of  value  given  to  each  farm  in  Indiana  by  any  canal  or 
railroad  which  cheapens  the  cost  of  sending  that  farm's  surplus 
produce  to  market — that  is,  to  producers  of  the  wares  you  re- 
quire or  the  fabrics  you  consume; — and  how  much  greater  must 
be  the  saving,  the  benefit,  to  Indiana,  of  bringing  to  her  soil  or 
near  it,  instead  of  tin-  fabrics,  their  manufacturers,  so  as  to  render 
them  perpetual  and  more  extensive  consumers  of  her  produce,  I 
need  not  surely  insist  on. 

But  I  pass  over  this  and  kindred  topics,  not  as  out  of  place  but 
out  of  time,  to  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the  necessity  that  every 
where  exists  for  increased  facilities  to  Practical  Education. 

I  have  been  exhorting  your  young  farmers  to  study  and  master 
the  vocation  to  which  their  lives  are  to  be  devoted — and  that  is 
right — but  what  if  they  were  to  turn  on  me  with  the  inquiry — 
"  Where  shall  we  study  ?"  How  shall  I  answer  them  if  they  ask, 
"  How  and  where  are  we  to  learn  how  to  analyze  soils  and  make 
ourselves  familiar  with  all  the  Science  which  lies  at  the  base  of 
Agriculture  as  well  as  Mechanics  ]"  I  can  only  say  to  them, 
"  We  in  New-York  are  determined,  as  soon  as  may  be,  to  have  a 
PEOPLE'S  COLLEGE  to  teach  these  important,  vital  truths  to  all 
who  seek  them,  and  to  enable  them  to  pay  their  way  by  their 
labor  while  learning  ;  and  we  trust  you  in  Indiana  will  speedily 


30  WHAT   THE   SISTER  ARTS 

follow  if  you  do  not  precede  us."  That  is  the  best  that  can  be 
said  to-day  ;  I  trust  ere  long  to  be  able  to  speak  more  to  the  pur- 
pose. 

I  do  not  seek  to  disguise  the  magnitude  and  the  difficulty  of  the 
work  I  contemplate — that  of  revolutionizing  our  Agriculture,  and 
making  it  the  most  elevated  and  ennobling,  because  the  most  intel- 
lectual, pursuit  of  man.  I  realize  the  mountains  of  Prejudice  that 
are  to  be  leveled,  the  Dead  Seas  of  Ignorance  that  must  be  filled 
up,  the  constitutional  immobility  of  Conservatism  that  must  be 
overcome,  before  the  end  can  be  attained.  But  I  see  also  how 
"  the  stars  in  their  courses  "  fight  in  behalf  of  Progress  and  En- 
lightenment— how  immense  has  been  the  march  of  Intelligence  as 
well  as  Invention  and  Physical  Improvement  in  our  age— how  the 
Steamboat,  the  Railroad,  the  Steam  Press,  the  Ocean  Steamship, 
the  Electric  Telegraph,  are  speeding  us  onward  with  a  momentum 
the  world  has  never  before  known — and  I  hear  a  voice  from  all 
these  and  many  a  kindred  impulse  and  influence,  bidding  Man  the 
Cultivator  advance  boldly  and  confidently  to  take  his  proper  post 
as  lord  of  the  animal  kingdom  and  wielder  of  the  elements  for  the 
satisfaction  of  his  wants  and  the  development  of  his  immortal 
powers.  I  hear  them  calling  him  to  vindicate  the  discernment  or 
the  prescience  of  those  glorious  old  Greeks  who  gave  our  Earth 
in  her  young  luxuriance  the  name  of  Kosmos  or  BEAUTY — a  name 
belied  by  our  scarred  and  stumpy  grain-fields,  our  seared  and 
barren  pastures,  our  bleak  and  arid  deserts,  our  foul,  malarious 
marshes ;  but  which  Science  shall  yet  justify  and  joyous  Labor 
perpetuate.  In  spite  of  all  distractions  and  impediments,  "  the 
world  does  move,"  and  even  the  most  sluggish  and  stubborn  are 
carried  along  with  it.  Our  Agriculture,  as  a  whole,  is  more 
skillful  and  efficient  than  it  was  thirty  or  forty  years  ago ;  and  it 
is  now  improving  in  accelerated  ratio.  Even  I,  the  descendant 
of  a  line  of  poor  cultivators,  stretching  back,  very  likely,  to  him 
who  through  his  own  blindness  and  fatuity  lost  the  situation  of 
head-gardener  in  Eden — even  I  feel  the  all-pervading  impulse 
toward  improvement  and  reform.  I  can  never  be  a  Scientific  farm- 
er— I  am  too  old  and  too  heavily  laden  with  duties  and  cares  for 
that — but  my  son,  if  he  lives,  shall  be.  The  little  I  can  teach  him 


TEACH   AS  TO   FARMING.  31 

shall  at  least  inspire  him  with  a  craving  for  more,  and  set  him  on 
the  right  track  to  learn  it.  And  thus  tens  of  thousands  are  grow- 
ing up  all  around  us — children,  perhaps,  of  ignorance  and  ineffi- 
ciency— who  shall  be  leaders  and  guides  in  the  great  work  to 
which  this  Address  is  a  feeble  but  earnest  contribution. 

Hawthorne,  in  his  "  Three-Fold  Destiny,"  tells  the  story  of  a 
young  man  who  wandered  all  the  world  over  in  quest  of  three 
wonderful  incidents,  which,  it  had  been  predicted,  should  occur  lo 
him ;  and  returned  disappointed  and  spirit-broken  to  find  them  all 
under  the  shadow  of  his  paternal  roof.  I  perceive  in  this  tale, 
as  in  every  work  of  true  genius,  some  reflection  of  a  universal 
fact;  an  appeal  to  the  general  experience  and  the  heart  of  Hu- 
manity. How  many  have  chased  deluding  phantoms  through  the 
fervid  noontide  of  life,  only  to  find,  as  evening  shadows  drew 
around  them,  that  Ambition  had  no  goal,  Achievement  no  triumph, 
to  equal  the  calm,  perennial  joys  of  a  humble  rural  home ! 

I  commend  the  moral  of  Hawthorne's  story  to  our  young  men, 
who  are  from  year  to  year  setting  forth  so  bravely  to  wrench 
fortune  from  the  golden  sands  of  California,  or  win  her  among 
the  young  cities  that,  emulating  the  growth  of  Jonah's  gourd,  are 
beginning  to  dot  the  American  shores  of  the  great  Pacific.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  insinuate  that  their  venture  is  a  wild  one,  and 
their  hopes  necessarily  doomed  to  ultimely  blight.  I  have  faith 
in  American  energy  ;  still  more  in  sturdy,  persistent,  intelligent 
Industry ;  and  I  feel  sure  that  a  clime  so  genial,  a  country  so 
diversified  in  its  natural  features,  a  soil  so  deep  and  virgin,  as 
those  of  California,  must  proffer  many  inducements  to  the  hardy, 
resolute  pioneer,  even  though  that  soil  be  here  and  there  sprin- 
kled with  gold.  Such  an  enterprise  as  the  peopling  and  settling 
of  a  country  so  new  and  so  remote  from  prior  civilization,  will, 
of  course,  demand  its  martyrs :  in  its  prosecution  thousands  will 
die,  and  tens  of  thousands  fail ;  but  the  enterprise  itself  will 
neither  die  nor  fail ;  and  many  of  those  who  fitly  embark  in  it 
will  achieve,  at  last,  success  and  competence.  What  I  would  say 
is  addressed  rather  to  the  tens  of  thousands  whom  filial  or  parental 
ties  retain  among  us,  while  they  impatiently  champ  the  bit  and 


32  WHAT   THE   SISTER   ARTS 

say,  "  Why  am  not  /,  too,  at  liberty  to  cross  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  gather  my  share  of  the  golden  harvest  f  To  these  I 
would  earnestly  say,  "  Believe  not,  repining  friends  !  that  Cali- 
fornia and  fortune  are  inseparable,  nor  forget  that  there  were 
broad  avenues  to  success  and  competence  before  Fremont  un- 
furled his  Bear  standard  in  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento."  Nay  : 
be  assured  that,  right  here  in  Indiana,  are  ample  placers  for  all 
who  will  resolutely  and  wisely  work  them — placers,  whereof  the 
yield  may  be  less  per  pan  or  day  than  that  of  some  of  the  richest 
"  gulches"  on  the  Feather  or  the  Yuba ;  but  then  it  is  certain, 
inexhaustible,  and  sure  to  prove  more  and  more  abundant  with 
each  returning  season.  The  deeper  these  mines  are  worked,  the 
more  ample  is  the  return  ;  they  require  no  outlay  of  skill  or 
labor  in  "  prospecting ;"  for  every  arable  rood  will  reward  the 
digger's  efforts,  and  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Missouri  he  will  find 
hardly  any  other  than  "  pay-dirt." 

As  for  me,  long-tossed  on  the  stormiest  waves  of  doubtful  con 
flict  and  arduous  endeavor,  I  have  begun  to  feel,  since  the  shades 
of  forty  years  fell  upon  me,  the  weary,  tempest-driven  voyager's 
longing  for  land,  the  wanderer's  yearning  for  the  hamlet  where  in 
childhood  he  nestled  by  his  mother's  knee,  and  was  soothed  to 
sleep  on  her  breast.  The  sober  down-hill  of  life  dispels  many 
illusions  while  it  developes  or  strengthens  within  us  the  attach- 
ment, perhaps  long  smothered  or  overlaid,  for  "  that  dear  hut,  our 
home."  And  so  I,  in  the  sober  afternoon  of  life,  when  its  sun,  if 
not  high,  is  still  warm,  have  bought  me  a  few  acres  of  land  in 
the  broad,  still  country,  and,  bearing  thither  my  household  trea- 
sures, have  resolved  to  steal  from  the  City's  labors  and  anxieties 
at  least  one  day  in  each  week,  wherein  to  revive  as  a  farmer  the 
memories  of  my  childhood's  humble  home.  And  already  I  real- 
ize that  the  experiment  cannot  cost  so  much  as  it  is  worth. 
Already  I  find  in  that  day's  quiet  an  antidote  and  a  solace  for 
the  feverish,  festering  cares  of  the  weeks  which  environ  it.  Al- 
ready my  brook  murmurs  a  soothing  even-song  to  my  burning, 
throbbing  brain  ;  and  my  trees,  gently  stirred  by  the  fresh  breezes, 
whisper  to  my  spirit  something  of  their  own  quiet  strength  and 
patient  trust  in  God.  And  thus  do  I  faintly  realize,  though  but 


TEACH   AS  TO   FARMING.  33 

for  a  brief  and  flitting  day,  the  serene  joy  which  shall  irradiate  the 
Farmer's  vocation,  when  a  fuller  and  truer  Education  shall  have 
refined  and  chastened  his  animal  cravings,  and  when  Science  shall 
have  endowed  him  with  her  treasures,  redeeming  Labor  from 
drudgery  while  quadrupling  its  efficiency,  and  crowning  with 
beauty  and  plenty  our  bounteous,  beneficent  Earth. 


14  jJAl    \.  _>.^ 
RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 


on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

Fo\v~ 

Professic 

mkiiKftlfl 
'TQJUn  J91** 

Hf         nd 
^ate 

These  . 

fng- 

COMML 
SUBSCRIP 

IN  STACKS 

and 

JUN  15  1959 

1 

ism,  Agric 
which  ar»= 

REC'D  LD 

AHC        :;; 

Quarto  for 

TiiKV 

ML  1    iBBd 

REC,CIR,    DEC  23  '75   rk> 

devoted   U 
Numerous 
familiar  It 

vith 

ic  :i 

complete  I 

ftlit,-.!  by  1 
high  rank  in 

•        7 

^OCT  191986       I, 

ing  n*  the  R|> 
abundance  o! 

THE  1 

nec'D  t-e 

^       DEC  171985";; 

Phonograr: 
in  Phonogi 

JANS   1950 

med 

travelling  ;  H 
thin  art  been 

TlTP     1 

'OK. 

irk- 

zine,  devc 
Physiolog) 

M>«  1  9  T9K. 

able  cases 
posing  Sys 
Reports  01 

REC'DLD   JUN 

Op- 

Illustratioi 

THE  S 

tr. 
T  r>  91  A    ^Om  Q  '^R                                      General  Library 
(  o889slO  )  476B                                    University  of  California           ral 

and  Intel!*  and 

the  Shop.     Thirty-two  Royal  Oclavo  1'agcs,  Published  .Monthly  at  One  Dollar  a  Year. 

It  contains  history,  biogrnnhv.  travels,  8oi<-nr<\  .vc.,  with  Illustrations.     It  is  a  Historian,  an  Orator,  a  Botanist, 
a   Chemist,  a  (Geologist,  mi  Astronomer,  a  Philosopher,  a   I'hysiolosfist,  n   P<*t,  « 


Musician,  and  is  just  the 


ork  for  Girls  nn<l  Boys', 


,  Teacher,  n  Story-Teller,  a 

ung  Mi-n  Htul  ymni);  Women.  ParFtils  and  Teachers. 


A  limited  space,  in  theso  PKRIODICAI.S  will  !*>  <lovot.r«l  to  AI>VKI;TISKMKXTS. 
For  particular?,  address  *- » 

F  ' >  W  I-  >'•  1'  s     A  X  I)     W  1"  I-  L  S  , 

Clinton  Ha  ..  i:>l  Xaw.'i  Street.  Xew  York. 


Binder 

Gaylord  Bros..  Inc. 
Nekton,  Calif. 

T.  M  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


25M  5/XO  <T:&\f  j,. 


M8O305 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


